Not Far from the Madding Crowd: With all the world’s troubles on his to-do list, Parsifal has his work cut out, suggests Hugo Shirley

Review of Parsifal, directed Visser, conducted Gatti, Dresden, 2026.

July 2026, Volume 20, Number 2, 81–3.

For his new Parsifal at the Semperoper, Floris Visser opts for a single revolving set: a beautifully built monastic ruin – Monsalvat Abbey he calls it – that has become a tourist attraction and site of pilgrimage. An information board stands centre-stage, with a couple of benches either side; to the left a little display offers postcards and memorabilia. The ruin is unveiled in its austere beauty early in the Prelude, but it doesn’t take long for the visitors to flood in: nuns; a school trip; visitors in wheelchairs and even a hospital bed; and, somewhat unexpectedly, climate protestors. A site of devotion is overcome by hustle and bustle.